Israel and the Church
The Church has not replaced Israel
Israel is represented as the “Wife of Jehovah,”
whereas the Church is represented as the Bride of Christ
A failure to maintain that distinction
will only result in a misinterpretation
of what the Scriptures teach.
Israel: Wife of Jehovah
The relationship of Israel as the Wife of Jehovah
is viewed throughout the Scriptures
The Marriage Contract
The entire format of the Book of Deuteronomy
is that of both an ancient treaty and an ancient marriage contract.
In this book, Moses took the three earlier books
and presented them in the form of an ancient marriage contract.
In this book we find the marriage contract signed between Israel and God
whereby Israel becomes the Wife of Jehovah.
There are key passages
that demonstrate how the Book of Deuteronomy
fits into the scheme of a marriage contract.
The first passage is found in Deuteronomy 5.1-3
which declares that God entered into a covenant
with His people Israel at Mount Sinai.
The Jewish prophets always viewed this covenant-relationship
as a marriage contract.
In Deuteronomy 6.10-15
God announces His jealousy over His Wife, Israel:
...You shall not go after other gods ...
Deuteronomy 6.13-15
In this passage,
Israel is warned against committing adultery
through the worship of other gods
because God’s burning jealousy
will be kindled against her
and will eventually cause her expulsion out of the Land.
Ezekiel is one example of the Jewish prophets
who viewed this covenant-relationship
as a marriage contract:
The Great Adultery
Several Old Testament prophets described Israel’s great adultery.
Jeremiah 3.1-5
shows Israel being guilty of playing the harlot
with many lovers and in Jeremiah 3.20
Israel is compared to a wife
who has turned away from her husband.
Israel was a wife guilty of adultery:
According to Jeremiah 31.32
the original marriage contract was broken because of this adultery
A long passage in 'Ezekiel 16
also describes this great adultery Ezekiel 16.15-34
and Hosea 2.1-5 declares the charge God had against Israel:
she was guilty of harlotry.
The Separation
Because of this adultery,
a separation took place between God and Israel
in the days of Isaiah.
In Isaiah 50.1 God spoke to the prophet
stating that God had not yet divorced His Wife.
If God had divorced her,
He would have given her a bill of divorcement;
and since no such bill of divorcement was in hand,
it meant that a divorce had not taken place.
This separation lasted approximately one hundred years.
The Divorce
The one hundred years of separation
failed to produce repentance in Israel
and finally God had no other choice
but to issue the bill of divorcement
on the grounds of adultery.
This bill of divorcement is contained in Jeremiah 3.6-10.
To a great extent,
almost all of Jeremiah can be declared
to be God’s bill of divorcement of Israel,
but especially this passage in chapter three.
The Punishment
Several Old Testament prophecies
speak of the punishment of Israel for her unfaithfulness:
Ezekiel 16.35-43 and
Hosea 2.6-13 are two examples.
The aim of this punishment
is not simply so that God could be vengeful toward Israel,
but rather to cause her to stop sinning
and to stop her adulteries Ezekiel 16.43.
Also, the purpose of the punishment
is to show Israel her need for her true husband
and not for her false lovers Hosea 2.7b
Although God has a long program of punishment for Israel’s sins,
throughout the period of punishment
there is a continual call to repentance.
This call is presented in Jeremiah 3.11-18. Jeremiah 3
The Remarriage
A coming day when Israel will again become the restored Wife of Jehovah.
This will require a brand-new marriage contract,
which is found in Jeremiah 31.31-34.
{What is often known as the new covenant
is in many respects a new marriage contract
that God will make with both the houses of Israel and Judah.}
This new covenant of marriage will be necessary
because the old marriage covenant was broken.
This remarriage contract is also described in Ezekiel 16.60-63.
According to Ezekiel,
God will enter into an everlasting covenant with Israel in the future.
The restoration of Israel as Jehovah’s Wife is also described in Isaiah 54.1-8,
and the remarriage is further described in Isaiah 62.4-5.
Hosea, who had much to say about the adulteries of Israel,
also spoke of Israel’s reunion with her husband.
Hosea 2.14-23 describes the courtship
and the wooing in the wilderness and shows the four results of this reunion.
The Church- The Bride of Christ
The Church and her relationship as the Bride of Christ
is radically different from regarding Israel as the Wife of Jehovah.
The Bride of the Messiah is true New Testament churches.
They will be a universal body at the rapture.
The “local church” is one of many churches scattered around the earth.
The Church is pictured today as an engaged Bride
who is not yet joined by marriage to her husband.
The Espousal
Speaking to the church found in the city of Corinth,
Paul declares that by means of evangelism,
they were espoused ... to one husband for the purpose
of eventually being presented as a pure virgin to Christ.
Unlike Israel, who was guilty of adultery,
when the union comes between the Messiah and the Church,
the Church will be presented as a pure virgin.
Ephesians 5-25
Church to be presented as a pure virgin as pictured in 2 Corinthians 11.2
- 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy:
- for I have espoused you to one husband,
- that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Church Marriage
Revelation 19.6-9
The Jewish wedding system
had four distinct stages,
which are found in the relationship of the Church as the Bride of Christ
In the first stage, the father of the groom
makes the arrangement for the bride and pays the bride price.
In this case, the bride price was the blood of the Messiah.
Described in Ephesians 5.25- 27
While the first stage has already been completed,
the other three stages are still future.
The second stage is the fetching of the Bride.
Just as a long period of time could transpire
between the first and second stages in the Jewish system,
so it has been with the Church.
Two thousand years have passed since the first stage was accomplished.
However, someday the second stage will take place
when the Messiah will come in order to fetch the Bride to His home.
This fetching of the Bride is referred to today as the rapture of the saints,
and is described in 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18
The third stage of the Jewish wedding system is the marriage ceremony
The marriage ceremony will take place in Heaven
just prior to the Second Coming of the Messiah at the end of the Tribulation,
Revelation 19.6-9
John the Baptist
who was the last of the Old Testament prophets
called himself a friend of the bridegroom
and did not consider himself to be a member of the Bride of Christ, the Church
John 3.27-30
The bride is now the married wife.
A graphic description of the glorious, eternal wife of the Lamb in her eternal abode.
If one makes the Wife of Jehovah (Israel)
and the Bride of Christ (the Church) one and the same thing,
he is faced with numerous contradictions because of the different descriptions given.
Only when the two separate entities are seen:
Israel as the Wife of Jehovah
and the Church as the Bride of Christ,
do all such contradictions vanish.
